


Soulmates

by Terr



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27974762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terr/pseuds/Terr
Summary: Ethan and Sienna share drinks and their thoughts about soulmates. Set early in OH3
Relationships: Danny/Sienna Trinh, Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> Ethan and Sienna are becoming my favorite friendship and so I wanted to write a little something with them, but there are strong mentions of other relationships so I don’t quite know how to categorize this (Sienna & Ethan’s friendship + Ethan X MC + Sienna X Danny ???)

Donahue’s wasn’t as packed as it usually would be on a Friday night and Ethan ingenuously hoped it could stay that way.

He has had hell of a day. He hated working under Leland Bloom and the days when he needed to attend a board meeting were a pure torture, after which he only wished to go home, cook a dinner with Chiara and then spend a peaceful night next to her.

However, his wish couldn’t have been granted tonight. Tonight, Chiara was on a nightshift and so to stick to his rule to not to bring his work home with him, Ethan decided to numb his misery with a drink or two.

Just as he ordered his first glass of scotch, a familiar tiny figure appeared next to him.

“Dr. Ramsey- er, Ethan!” Sienna greeted him in her sing-sang voice, smiling widely. “Long time no see.”

She was joking, of course. It was this morning when she bumped into Ethan in their apartment’s kitchen, unaware of his presence until then.

Ethan chuckled softly at the remark and nodded in a greeting.

“Sienna. It’s rather uncommon to see you here alone.”

Sienna ordered a drink whose name Ethan didn’t recognize and – with a smile still softening her features – turned back to him.

“I am waiting for Aurora, but she had to check on some patient. Do you mind if I join you for a while?”

“Make yourself comfortable,” Ethan gestured towards the chair next to his.

Months of dating Chiara publicly meant spending quite huge amount of time around her friends. And Ethan enjoyed the time spent around them most of the time. But there was something different about Sienna.

It was safe to say – and he was not ashamed to admit it – that Ethan _liked_ Sienna Trinh.

Reggie put her ordered drink in front of Sienna and for a split of a second, Ethan wasn’t capable to school his features at the look of it. His expression of absolute horror didn’t go unnoticed by Sienna.

“You are judging my drink,” she smirked, slowly swirling the hideous, all too colorful sugar-bomb with her straw.

“My apologies,” Ethan finally composed himself and tore his gaze away. “I am not _judging_ , I-“

Sienna laughed at his embarrassed behavior and waved her hand at him, interrupting his attempts to explain himself.

“It’s okay. You reminded me of Jackie, she judges my drink choices all the time.”

More people walked into the bar, however Aurora wasn’t one of them and so Sienna kept occupying the chair next to Ethan. It was nice, actually. As much as Ethan hated engaging in small talks and embarrassing silence, the situation he found himself in now was somehow different.

The silence between him and Sienna was not an awkward one and her presence helped Ethan leave the awful board meeting behind.

It also made him want to hear her opinion on a matter that has been on his mind for a while.

“Can I ask you something?”

He weighed his options before asking and as much as he wished to maintain his strictly rational approach to life, the question occupied his mind way too often now.

“Of course,” the younger doctor smiled brightly and raised her gaze from the godawful drink to him.

There was a curiosity in the way she looked at him, as if she couldn’t wait to hear what would Ethan Ramsey like to ask _her._

Ethan gulped down the rest of his scotch in one swing and asked.

“Do you believe in soulmates?”

Sienna’s eyebrows raised in an utter surprise, her mouth falling slightly open.

“A way to maintain a conversation, doctor,” she responded at last, amusement visible on her features, although her voice was much smaller now.

“You don’t have to answer, of course,” Ethan shrugged, ordering another drink.

Sienna was silent for a long moment and Ethan was beginning to believe that she truly wouldn’t answer.

“I always did, but I might have changed my mind.”

Another silence.

Just as Ethan was about to ask if she would like to elaborate, Sienna sighed, put her drink down and turned to him.

“I have always been such a romantic person, I have waited for my soulmate since the high school. I felt like it was my mission, to find him and just… _be happy_ , you know? And then I met Wayne – my ex,” she explained and took a sip of her drink to gain herself some more time before continuing.

She expected Ethan to ask anything, but not this. He couldn’t have known how much she has been thinking about the topic herself lately.

“So I met Wayne and he was great and we got along really well and it didn’t take many dates for us to get together. The first year, maybe first two years, were great and I really thought ‘wow, this is it’. Things started to change in our third year of the relationship and went downhill ever since then, but I was dwelling on the idea of him being my soulmate so hard that I couldn’t break things with him.”

Shaking her head softly, she smiled sadly at Ethan and he felt like he crossed the line. He had no right to make her tell him about her ex. No right to make her sad.

“It was when I met Danny and started to spend more time with him when something changed. The way he got me, the way we could talk through the night and not be awkward in the morning after. With Danny, everything felt right. With him, I caught myself thinking ‘no, _this_ is it. This is what a soulmate should feel like’ so many times and-“

Her breath hitched in her throat and she looked down at her shoes, blinking rapidly to prevent the tears from falling from her eyes.

“He is gone now and I am scared to believe that he was my soulmate because what if he was? What if I found him and lost him forever?”

Ethan put his hand on Sienna’s shoulder softly, trying his best to put all the comfort and compassion into the gesture.

“Chiara told me how much Daniel meant to you,” he spoke quietly, not even sure if Sienna heard him over the music blasting from the loudspeakers.

Sienna finished her drink and ordered another before looking up at Ethan again, her expression almost bright again as she plastered a wide smile on her face again.

“What about _you_ , Dr. Ramsey? Do you believe in soulmates?”

He knew he should have expected for her to ask the same question. He could have had an answer ready.

Still, he dropped his gaze into the amber liquid in his glass and allowed his mind to wander to Chiara.

His Chiara. His light.

How she came into his life, like a blazing fire that burned his walls until she found a crack in them and his whole life ignited at the touch. His every attempt to push her away was meant as a water to extinguish that fire only for Ethan to realize that instead, those were the doses of oxygen she needed to keep the flames glowing.

Until the realization hit him, that there was no better feeling than to be thoroughly and irrecoverably burned by the fire that was Chiara.

How Chiara Ray never hesitated to challenge him, to push him to do better, to openly tell him when he was wrong.

How he never wanted anything as much as he wanted to be with Chiara and he never put half as much effort into anything than he put into preventing this wish of his to happen; pushing her away and giving her every reason to hate him. And how something as simple as Chiara’s kind smile and patient words and overflowing compassion swept all of his rules away, letting him fulfill his wishes at last.

He thought about all those things he got to learn about Chiara and Chiara about him – real issues and little details.

How he is the only one to recognize her subtle, almost secret change in an expression, when the right corner of her mouth quirks up ever so slightly and her eyes grow distant and Ethan knows that she is thinking about her past back in San Francisco.

How she is the only woman to ever know that Ethan hates sleeping in a t-shirt and then complains about his sore lower back in the morning because he was cold through the night and so every time she wakes up in the night – which is awfully often – she makes sure to put the slumped covers back on him to make sure he is warm and comfortable.

And how they constantly joke about the fact that they could only buy one pajamas set for both of them, because he only wears bottoms and she only wears tops – preferably his anyway. He could never imagine talking about sharing pajamas with anyone but her.

How she knows about the scar under his left arm – a spot well hidden under his shirts usually – and how it felt natural to tell her the story behind it – it wasn’t until she was crying of a laughter when Ethan realized that not even his father knew about the scar.

He chuckled to himself at the thought of Chiara’s jokes and puns, which were the worst he has ever heard – which has anyone heard, he was sure – and still one of those jokes was the first thing in years that made him spit out his morning coffee when she said it.

Biting his lower lip slowly, he recalled how all the acts of a physical affection were limited to the ones shared in a bedroom of one of the lovers’ before, while with Chiara, he took every opportunity to take her hand or kiss her forehead or stroke her hair.

How the connection he feels while the most mundane moments with Chiara – while cooking the dinner next to her or sitting in a car with her or reading a book while Chiara watches a TV – was carrying more intimacy in it than the most intimate moment with any other woman ever carried.

Ethan knew that there were many amazing women in his life, there were many friends, many people he respected and admired and even liked.

But he knew just as well that there was nobody like Chiara for him. Nobody he loved like he loved her.

_There was only one Chiara and always will be._

He snapped out of his thoughts and found Sienna staring at him expectantly.

 _What about you, Dr. Ramsey? Do you believe in soulmates?_ Ethan repeated her question in his head.

Ethan smiled softly and finished his drink before responding.

“I never did, but I might have changed my mind.”


End file.
